High School DxD – 05

I’m not going to lie, I’ll miss Reinare. I like a villain who really enjoys being evil, and with expressions like this, you can tell that the Angel Formerly Known as Yuuma-chan was having a great time toying with Issei. But this episode wasn’t about a Nabatame Hitomi-voiced super bitch prancing around in skimpy clothing and impaling Issei with light spears (again) – it was a chance for Issei to prove his mettle, and for Rias-senpai to show exactly why she’s the boss. They were successful on both counts.

As far as Issei goes, he was a stone-cold badass for most of this episode. While I questioned how smart it was to show his back to the person who has killed him once and just done the same to his love interes–erh, I mean, friend, the rest of the episode was Issei crying manly tears, attacking the Big Bad by himself and yanking poisonous light spears out of his legs without passing out and voiding his bowels like most of us would have. Well done, sir. That said, Issei still acted like a bit of an idiot. Perhaps there’s a limit to how often he can promote himself, but if not then he could have promoted himself to Knight and dodged those light spears, promoted himself to Rook and blocked them, or promoted himself to Queen and just zapped Reinare into next thursday. And if there is a limit, the writers should have mentioned this! And yeah, I realize that wasn’t the point of the scene – the point was to have Issei win by pure gumption and reveal to us what his Sacred Gear really does – but it’s these kinds of things that put a cap on how badass Issei can be.

And then there’s Rias-senpai, who has absolutely no limits on how badass she can be. Since Slayers was mentioned in irc earlier, I’m going to draw a slightly old-school parallel – Rias-senpai reminded me of Lina Inverse when she was nuking baddies, and anyone who does that is alright in my book. But more than that, it’s how she used the situation to help one of her people, Issei, grow. A manipulative manager she may be, but it really worked, allowing Issei to grow and mature instead of Rias-senpai just blowing Reinare away, as she clearly could have – and eventually did. And going so far as to let Issei show whether he would be an idiot and try to save Yuuma-chan? Even better. If Issei loses any points for being an idiot, Rias-senpai takes those and earns several thousand more for being smart, powerful and cunning to boot. And having an amazing rack.

So, a good episode overall, right? Well, yes, it was very entertaining. There was plenty of action, the bad guys all got justifiably melted, and Asia joined the team. We all knew things would end up roughly as they did, but it was still enjoyable getting here, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

…or is there? In thinking about this episode, I realized the greatest sin that High School DxD, and series like it, have committed: it’s not trying to be great. It’s a safe adaptation, taking decent source material, slathering on passable animation, dialing up the fanservice (which is sure to move some Blu-rays) and then calling it a day. TNK was never trying to wow us with the little touches that are making other shows airing this season – Ano Natsu de Matteru, Nisemonogatari, Rinne no Lagrange – so amazing. Instead, they were satisfied with merely being good. Now, don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy this show when I sit down to watch it, but will I remember it two seasons from now? Two years? And would I watch it so quickly if I weren’t blogging about it? I don’t know. One thing is for sure, though…by the end of this series, I’m going to be reeeeally good at making full-size images. Enjoy!

I think the Crimson Dragon’s ability from the manga was doubling his power every 2 seconds with no limit. The explanation in the anime was much less technical.
Also, I think Issei is unable to promote to Queen rank because he wouldn’t be able to withstand it.
Fanservice anime with a little bit better plot than others in the genre so far.

There is a limit to the power-up. The Boosted Gear’s potential is infinite, the Boosted Gear’s owner however has a limit to how much power he can handle (decided by talent and training). Once the Boost exceeds the body’s limit, it “Bursts” and you collapse. This can be either due to letting it run for too long OR using it too many times in small doses.

Ise can also turn into a Queen but not just yet since his base stats are too low for it. And when he did, the power that he had was lower than Akeno’s and he notes that he needs more training.

I guess this is a little bit of a spoiler, but as to Issie’s promotion ability Show Spoiler ▼

he can’t promote himself to queen yet, because he is too weak to utilize the full power of queen… at least not yet

it is pretty awesome to see the episode being animated after reading the LN… the next arc will be even better in the battle front… and I am fully on board on Rias Senpai’s ship!! though I wish they could animate later volumes too…

ps. does anyone know if there is any translation for the LN past volume 6?

About promoting himself to Rook in his battle with Yuuma, it may have been lost in the split episodes but once he turns on promotion in an enemy territory he retains that promotion as long as he’s there. He also can’t turn into a Queen just yet since his base stats are too low for that particular class change.

On top of that, Yuuma boasts that her light is pretty powerful compared to others. Promoting to Rook won’t be enough since even Koneko would get seared with it. Holy element is understandably super effective against devils.

Didn’t Rias say that Issei couldn’t handle promoting himself to Queen? Besides, like others have said he can’t just swap out promotions as he wants, he has to take something and make it work. That aside, he made it work all over the place! Love those man-tears! Definitely the best episode overall! Asia has entered the party/harem in all her innocent, sexy glory! :D

I don’t think this is actually a spoiler but I’ll tag it anyways on Issei’s potential power since they kinda just glossed over it: Show Spoiler ▼

the only reason Issei is a Pawn is because Rias had the 8 Pawn pieces and only 1 Knight, 1 Rook, and 1 Bishop left when she contracted him. 8 Pawns is actually worth more than a Knight, Rook, or Bishop, and she can’t mix-match pieces, so she literally had to go-for-broke to have a chance of reviving him! Issei can easily be the man of this house! That Sacred Gear of his is a friggen thing of beauty!

You know what they say: B**** had it coming. Apparently she never read the memo to not mock someone about their dead love interests. Never ends well. I also liked how Issei wasn’t fooled by her ex-girlfriend act. A “wise” protagonist is rare, so I’m actually surprised that there is one in an ecchi anime.

In the end I’m just sticking in my watch list because I enjoy it for what it is. Honestly the heavy fanservice is needed here. That plot is very derivative, but enjoyable. There are plenty of other shows like this, so it needs that extra push to get an audience.

Just watched the subs. The explanation on the Boosted Gear was either changed for the anime or a mistranslation (more likely the latter). It doesn’t increase the person’s powers immeasurably for 10 secs, it doubles the power every 10 secs up to immeasurable levels instead.

It’s why Yuuma mistook it for a normal Twice Critical that doubles a person’s power once. It’s also why we kept hearing BOOST throughout the fight.

Sigh. After watching this episode, my feeling is that this show can be fantastic *without* all the fan service. In fact, I am PRETTY SURE that this show would be better without the fan service… which always shows up at the most inappropriate places. Come on! Why would you want to show Asia with bare breasts while she lay dying?

Well that was entertaining. Was expecting it to turn out like this, but didn’t think it would have been done this well. Was kinda expecting Issei to snap and go bazerk on Reinare, easily wiping her out. But forcing the rest of the demon clan to subdue him and bring him back to base. Glade to see that overused trop wasn’t used.

Not sure, how this next arch will go, but if the series keeps going at this pace. It won’t disappoint. Let just hope they don’t do bunch of filler material and then do a cram/rush end when this gets to episode 12.

By the way, what exactly is the manifestation of Asia’s Sacred Gear? Is it one ring or two rings? When Reinare died she had two rings with her… were they both Asia’s? Or is the other ring a different Sacred Gear?

Great episode. I glad that Issei didn’t fall for the trickery. I mean, underneath all that perverted layers is a really kind heart guy and Reinaire got what she deserved for trying to take advantage of that. Am I the only one that was disappointed that there was no ending sequence? This is one of the few shows where I actually look forward to the ending sequence for the lols.

1.Rias is SO overpowered… yes to the levels of Lina Inverse, down to the “oh, crap!” faces of enemies who reralize her true power…
2.But then Issei gets “Infinity plus one” sacred gear of god-slaying power level. Guess they really will be matching pair :P
3.I was amused how the fallen angel went for last ditch defence of pretended innocence AFTER spending good part of episode gloating over how boring was the date and abusing verbally both Issei and Asia – EPIC FAIL

Is double his power every 10 sec, which to be honest I still don’t get how he can defeat her with 4 boost ( according to novel), I mean his power lvl is 1 double then 2 double 4 double 8 double 16 still I would say that still a bit weak. He didn’t get overpower till volume 4 at the end when he fight his nemesis, I was laughing my ass off the way he boost during volume 4 of novel and why he boost. Sad this show probably end at volume 2 and you wouldn’t get to see the more exciting part of the novel, volume 1 and 2 is more of a epilogue not the main focus of the show.